A griddle (sometimes referred to as a grill) or a charbroiler is often the first piece of equipment purchased for a new restaurant because it is an essential focal point for activity in the kitchen. Owners of restaurants, hotels, hospitals, military bases, cruise ships, colleges, etc all use a griddle or a charbroiler to cook many of their offerings.
Cooking on a griddle or charbroiler requires the frequent use of cooking implements such as a spatula, grill weights, cooking tongs, a salt shaker, and so forth. These items are often placed or hung on nearby shelfs or racks, but this reduces cooking efficiency because it causes the cook to constantly step away from the griddle or charbroiler so as to obtain cooking implements and then return them to their storage locations. Sometimes cooking implements are placed on the cooking surface, conveniently within reach of a cook using the griddle or charbroiler, but this approach reduces the available cooking area and can also cause the implements to become undesirably warm.
Cooking on a griddle or charbroiler also frequently requires the temporary storing of certain food items, such as cuts of meat, in a manner that will keep them warm but will not cause them to be overcooked. This can happen, for example, when a number of different dishes are being prepared that require different cooking times but must be served simultaneously. It can also happen when the number of items to be simultaneously served exceeds the capacity of the cooking surface. Warming lamps are sometimes employed to keep such food items warm, but this can cause the food items to dry out, and also can cause the food items to no longer seem freshly cooked, since meats and other items cooked on a griddle or charbroiler are heated from below, and hence are warmer on the bottom, while a warming lamp heats these items from above, and thereby causes them to be warmer on the top.